January 2024

SUPPORT

Happy New Year & Thank You!

We begin 2024 with deep gratitude for our community of donors and your incredible support. Together, your generosity ensures we can deliver inspiring programs for the year ahead, including collaborating with 20 emerging historians to craft captivating tours and digital programs, and hiring a program coordinator to help amplify our storytelling. Our team is already hard at work developing plans to participate in eight community events across Toronto.

We look forward to inviting you to join us in 2024 for a year filled with exploration and discovery. Stay tuned to this newsletter and our social media channels for updates on these upcoming experiences on the rich heritage that shapes our great city.

PLAQUES

Discover new plaques on Toronto's history of resilience, invention, and creativity

In 2023, we installed 35 new plaques in public spaces around the city. We placed plaques outside the former homes of medical scientist Dr. Leone Farrell, who pioneered a technique for mass-producing the vaccine that ended the 1950s polio epidemic, and the Quebecois-Abenaki painter and muralist Rita Letendre, whose large-scale public art pieces include the colourful skylight at Glencairn station. Black businessman James Mink, Eaton's College Street (now College Park), and the Waterworks Building on Richmond Street also received plaques.

We were thrilled to work with community partners on special events unveiling new plaques celebrating the pioneering trans singer Jackie Shane and two of the first Black doctors in Canada. On July 1, we marked the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act with two plaques—one for Kew Dock Yip and the other for the Chong Family Farm. Among these highlights, an explosive comedy night at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre spotlighted the 1930 invention of the whoopee cushion in Toronto.

See all these plaques and more on city streets now!

EXPLORE

Power and Passion: The Couples Who Changed History

January 25 - February 29 | 1:00 - 3:00 PM

$69 FEE for six weeks

Location: 506 Bloor Street West

Join our own Dr. Laura Carlson as she leads an exciting in-person course at Hot Docs Cinema in the Annex, focusing on the partnerships that forged empires, penned prize-winning prose and lit up the silver screen.

Use code HERITAGE60 for an exclusive discount on top of the fee noted for Heritage Toronto subscribers!

TOURS

Open call for Tour proposals

Do you have a great idea for a walking tour that will bring people together to explore our city and to discover the diverse stories and lived experiences that define Toronto? We're encouraging proposals from equity-deserving individuals or communities, or which focus on topics or neighbourhoods related to these communities.

Submit a proposal to lead a volunteer public walk with us during our 2024 season. Proposals will be accepted until January 31, 2024.

VOLUNTEERS

Get involved!

We have some amazing events planned for 2024, and we need your help! Our volunteers assist with tours, public programming, and special events to help Torontonians and visitors learn about our city's heritage and cultures.

Want to meet new people and get involved in your community? Email info@heritagetoronto.org with the subject “Volunteer 2024” to be added to our contact list.

Image Credits

Emerging historians and panelists, Storytelling: Are we getting it right?, November 30, 2023. Image by Ashley Duffus.

Plaque presentation for the Whoopie Cushion, December 3, 2023. Image by Ashley Duffus.

Tour participants, Baby Point Uncovered, July 29, 2023. Image by Oscar Akamine.

Volunteers, Likkle Heritage Treasure Hunt, June 3, 2023. Image by Oscar Akamine.